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MoHo Architecture Movie Series Continues with Double Feature

This year’s MoHo Realty Architecture Movie series, sponsored by North Carolina Modernist Houses and MoHo Realty, continues on Thursday, November 5, at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library Auditorium in Raleigh with a double feature that focuses on small houses.

“Lustron: The House America’s Been Wait For” documents the rise and fall of engineering genius Carl Strandlund and his brainchild, the “Lustron,” a 1000-square-foot, post-war, pre-fab house. Made entirely of porcelain-enameled steel, the little Lustron was rot-proof, vermin-proof, and never needed painting. Averaging just $10,000, Lustrons could be erected on site in less than a week.

The Lustron’s ultimate failure was blamed on simple market forces. But in 1994, film producers Bill Kubota, Ed Moore, and Bill Ferehawk discovered a trail of newspaper clippings, Senate hearing transcripts, and internal Lustron Corporation documents suggesting that the collapse of the “General Motors of housing” was brought on by a government conspiracy that reached all the way to the Truman White House.

The second feature, “Little Boxes: The Legacy of Henry Doelger,” is a Monique Lombardelli documentary that celebrates the life and works of the San Francisco Bay Area pioneer of mid-century Modern design. In 1947, Doelger and his associates began building the Westlake district in Daly City. The district is one of the earliest examples of a large-tract suburban development and a manifestation of urban sprawl. Life magazine featured photographs of the numerous rows of houses in the 1950s, which were immortalized in Pete Seeger’s hit song “Little Boxes.”

Monthly now through February, the MoHo Realty Architecture Movie Series will screen hard-to-find architecture-related films in the Hunt Library Auditorium at NC State University with one additional film in downtown Raleigh in November.

Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door. Cash and credit cards are accepted. Mod Squad members get in free until capacity is reached. The first 100 NCSU students with a student ID are admitted free of charge. NCSU Friends of the Library get 10 percent off tickets with a “Friends of the Library” card. The Hunt Library is located on Centennial Campus at 1070 Partners Way, Raleigh. Free parking is available adjacent to the library.

Series sponsor MoHo Realty specializes in modern and unique architect-designed homes in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Other series sponsors include VMZinc and Hill Country Wood Works. For more information on the series, the films, and to view trailers, go to www.ncmodernist.org/movies.